16 Quotes by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Listen, my dear Cors, why don’t you forgive God for allowing pain? If He didn’t allow it, human courage, bravery, nobility, and self-sacrifice would all be meaningless things.

Soon the sun will set’- is that prophecy? No, it’s merely an assertion of faith in the consistency of events.

Bless me Father, I ate a lizard.

Speak up, destiny, speak up! Destiny always seems decades away, but suddenly it’s not decades away; it’s right now. But maybe destiny is always right now, right here, right this very instant, maybe.

Ask for an omen, then stone it when it comes – de essentia hominum.

I’m not so sure he’s mad, Father. Just a little devious in his sanity.

When you tire of living, change itself seems evil, does it not? for then any change at all disturbs the deathlike peace of the life-weary.

Because a doubt is not a denial. Doubt is a powerful tool, and it should be applied to history.

To minimize suffering and to maximize security were natural and proper ends of society and Caesar. But then they became the only ends, somehow, and the only basis of law – a perversion. Inevitably, then, in seeking only them, we found only their opposites: maximum suffering and minimum security.